According to Jack Kapica of today's Globe & Mail, the New England Journnal
of Medicine (June 22nd) says it will extend the anti-double-publishing rule,
which is generally in effect for the paper literature, to the electronic media
This will make it even more difficult for electronic journals to get off
the ground. The major problem is no uniform way of citing electronic papers,
and the probable refusal of the paper media to agree to cite an electronic
publication.
The great strength of the paper journals is their scrupulous reviewing
process, but there is not reason why electronic papers could not be just as
scrupulously reviewed, and carry some mark to indicate this.
The great strength of the electronic media is that a contribution of little
value takes up a negligible amount of "electronic space", whereas such contr-
ibutions overwhelm our libraries and marginally make it more difficult to
access the important literature.
Sincerely,
Don Forsdyke, Discussion Leader,
Bionet.journals.note